Forwarding Phone calls + Texts to US Number

[Maverick_TO 2]

Hi All,

 

I'm in the process of establishing LPR in the US and winding up my stay in Canada. Considering that a lot of institutions (governmental agencies, financial institutions, et al) require a Canadian number for authentication (2FA), I need the ability to forward phone calls/texts received on my Canadian cell number to my US cell number. While there exists the option to retain the cell number with the carrier, a considerable premium is levvied to retain the number. Are there any recommended utilities/VOIP tools that I could leverage to address the fact that I'll need to the ability to receive calls/texts sent to my Canadian number in the US?

 

Many thanks!

NK

[Timona 3,941]

I believe you can change it online or ask a rep to change it to US number. My friend did.

[Mike E 11,723]

5 hours ago, Timona said:

I believe you can change it online or ask a rep to change it to US number. My friend did.

From my experience, CIBC won’t let you do it online but a human employee at CIBC will let your 2FA be a USA number.  
 

Prior to that was I just using a burner sim from Rogers, but they would not accept an InterAC payment from a cibc debit card. 

[preguntas 0]

Yes, you could get this application called Fongo that would port your canadian number into it.

In other words, all calls and most* texts sent to your canadian number end up on your Fongo app (that you can have installed on your smart phone).

 

most*: I said most because there is this type of SMS called "SHORT" SMS that are apparently not sent to that app. That might not be a problem if you ask your other party to use an actual phone call to send you a code (as happens with CRA etc...).

 

You would then need to port your number to Fongo and therefore, you would NOT lose it. Yep, you can keep your canadian number.  I did that more than 5 years ago and it's still working.  I just buy from time to time a SMS international package from Fongo for a few dollars (5 $ I think, every year or 2) when I need to send SMS: even that, you don't need to buy it; I just did it b/c Fongo has been super useful to me. 

 

I hope this helps.